Stock trading stamp tax at record high

BEIJING - Stamp tax on stock trading in China hit a record high in the first half of the year as investors flocked to the booming market, new data showed on Friday.

During the January-June period, total turnover on China's stock market came in at 137.95 trillion yuan ($22.6 trillion), resulting in stamp duty of around 138 billion yuan, according to statistics from financial information provider Wind.

The volume surged 545 percent from the same period last year.

Before China's market took a downturn on June 12, the Shanghai composite had risen by 152 percent since July 2014 and nearly 60 percent since the beginning of the year, with transactions constantly refreshing records.

China's stamp tax is currently set at 0.1 percent, and it is widely seen as a signal of the government stance on the stock market. The two cuts in stamp tax in 2008 both resulted in a surge of more than 9 percent in the Shanghai index.

This time, when the key stock index plunged by over 30 percent from mid June, investors had hoped in vain for a similar move to restore market confidence.